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Case Study

How Flock Safety used Clari to get accurate forecast data within 30 days

Company Size: Mid-size
Products Used
15%
increase in win rate
60%
decrease in slipped deals
Table of Contents

Approximately 80% of crimes committed in the United States involve the use of a motor vehicle. However, most consumer cameras struggle to automatically and accurately identify license plates due to issues like distance, blurriness, or speed.

In 2017, Garrett Langley established Flock Safety to combine devices that capture objective evidence with machine learning, providing unbiased investigative leads to law enforcement agencies.

“Our goal,” says Alex Latraverse, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) at Flock Safety, “is to reduce crime by 25% over the next 3 years. We exist to help communities work together to eliminate crime.”

Over the past 4 years, Flock Safety has grown from $1M ARR to $100M+, and as of late 2022, Flock Safety is helping solve 5% of all reported crimes across the US.

But due to the Flock Safety business's unique nature, Alex struggled to effectively and efficiently roll up an accurate, reliable sales forecast.

Challenge

How to roll up an accurate sales forecast within a complex business

Flock Safety runs a complex business.

  • 4 customer segments
  • Hardware & software
  • Multiple product lines

The 4 customer segments are (1) Community Safety, (2) Law Enforcement, (3) SMB & Enterprise Businesses, and (4) K-12 through higher education schools. Each group has its own team, all of which operates independently.

The 2 product types are hardware and software. In many ways, they operate similarly to a SaaS organization—a software dev shop (UI/UX) and team who builds proprietary software and learning models used to extract more objective evidence. But they also are a hardware company—an entire engineering team who designs and builds the actual cameras.

Different buyers. Unique products. Rapid growth. Again, all a recipe for a not-so-easy-to-roll-up sales forecast.

Solution

From “spreadsheets and Salesforce” to Clari, “my favorite platform.”

Flock Safety was trying to manage sales forecasting with “spreadsheets and Salesforce,” shares Alex.

“We were exporting data into a spreadsheet, and then I manipulated it. I used the Salesforce forecast tab and pulled out a weighted forecast.”

And then, Clari.

“Clari has been game-changing in the way we cut through the complexity and provide an easy-to-understand platform to understand the health and trajectory of each of these business segments.”

Since Clari, Alex “can’t recall the last time” he’s used Salesforce to forecast.

Remember the complexity of Flock Safety’s business?

For Alex and his team, accurate sales forecasting is crucial not only for meeting their targets but also for effectively managing Flock Safety's intricate supply chain, manufacturing, and inventory systems. They need to anticipate sales targets precisely to determine supply chain requirements, sometimes necessitating the purchase of components as far as 12-18 months in advance.

And thanks to Clari, the team now has “a common platform and language all salespeople use.”

“I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't use Clari at this point. It's an amazing tool that simplifies everything. As a VP of Sales or CRO, Clari tops my list of favorite platforms. It's my go-to source for gaining insights into my business.”

Alex Latraverse
CRO at Flock Safety

Results: Value realized within 30 days.

As a 600-person company adding over 100 employees per quarter for the past 3 quarters, Flock Safety has experienced a lot of growth (and change).

"Clari's Pulse has excelled at making predictions based on our more established customer segments, which I expected. What I didn't expect was how incredibly accurate (+/- a few percentage points) Pulse proved to be after just one month."

Trend has also been a big plus for Alex and team. He can see the underlying assumptions (sales stage, forecast category), plus 4-5 quarters side-by-side to understand what happened that day compared to the past few quarters.

In addition, Alex uses Waterfall to monitor the pipeline's progress week-over-week and month-over-month."The entire system is just so easy to use, comprehend and interpret. It's incredibly intuitive."
With Waterfall, Alex can not only see where the pipeline is today, but can quickly understand what led to the current pipeline by identifying the factors contributing to change.

Ultimately, Clari saves everyone a lot of time. Reps and sales leaders can quickly go into Clari and see, based on the stage of opportunity/forecast category, what the commit and best-case scenario looks like. And, if necessary, easily overwrite with a dollar figure.

“Clari helps us visualize data. I send screenshots of Waterfall to my Exec Team all the time. It’s very self-explanatory. Same with Pulse and Trend. It literally tells the story for you.”

What’s next for Flock Safety?

Alex shared part of a conversation he was having with one of his CRO advisors. He asked, “Do we really need a weekly forecast call since we have Clari?”

Clari has become an application loved by everyone in the sales org regardless of role. While they started with just managers, now all reps use the platform—insightful, intuitive.

"I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't use Clari at this point. It's an amazing tool that simplifies everything. As a VP of Sales or CRO, Clari tops my list of favorite platforms. It's my go-to source for gaining insights into my business."

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